


Keeping It Spooky

by she_who_the_river_could_not_hold



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Halloween, Tumblr Prompt, also me: Halloweeeeeeennnnnnnn, me: I'm ready for summer, mild swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 07:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18115742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/she_who_the_river_could_not_hold/pseuds/she_who_the_river_could_not_hold
Summary: Max is determined to win this year's Halloween door decorating contest. But just when she's feeling confident, she realizes that her next door neighbor had completely outdone them. She's still prepared to win, but she's also thrown off by how cute he is, which doesn't hurt anything.





	Keeping It Spooky

**Author's Note:**

> Based on one of my own prompts and requested on Tumblr: Person A and Person B are neighbors who have never met - but this year their apartment is having a Halloween door decorating contest and they’re both determined to win

“You know we have to throw a giant Halloween party right? It’s the first time we’ve ever had the space!” El rambled excitedly, fishing through their Halloween bowl for a Milky Way bar. 

 

Max grinned from where she was perched on their counter, fake cobwebs in hand. 

 

“Oh you know it,” she replied confidently. “You know how much I love Halloween, it’s going to be iconic. I’ve already got our movie list for the month.”

 

El groaned through the gooey, chocolate bite in her mouth. “You know I hate scary movies.”

 

Humming over her best friend and roommate’s complaints, Max finished sticking the cobwebs to their counters before jumping down to the floor. El rolled her eyes, but perked up as a thought occurred to her. Grabbing her book bag, she began to excitedly fish through it until she triumphantly pulled out a piece of paper. She waved it at Max until the redhead grabbed it.

 

“I totally forgot to give this to you the other day, apparently they're hosting a door decorating contest. Want to get in on it?”

 

Max’s eyes bugged out and her jaw dropped. 

 

“Um, hell yes! We’re going to win the whole thing,” she announced confidently.

 

* * *

 

El nearly fell out of her chair as the door to their small apartment slammed shut.

 

“Have you seen our neighbor?” Max demanded, stalking into the living room.

 

“Hello to you too,” El responded sarcastically. “And which one? We have one on each side.”

 

Max let out a frustrated whine and dropped onto the couch, her arm thrown dramatically over her face. She did her best to kick off her converse with her feet, pushing at the heel and letting them drop onto the floor. El patiently waited for her friend to begin her venting. She had learned over the years that it was better to just wait and not push Max when it came to this stuff.

 

“It’s just so good!” She finally burst out.

 

El cocked her head, looking curiously at Max.

 

“What’s good?”

 

“Their door,” Max huffed. “It’s a piece of artwork. I don’t know how they did it, it’s totally better than ours.” 

 

“I don’t think I’ve seen it,” mused El, trying to not laugh out loud.  _ Clearly this was very important to Max, as well as distressing. _

 

Max sat up abruptly, her hair flying around her face. 

 

“How have you missed it?” She tugged at the hair that had gotten in her mouth, her brow furrowed. El merely shrugged, but had a sinking suspicion of where this was going.

 

Shoving herself off of the couch, Max motioned for El to follow her. Which she did, grudgingly. 

 

The two girls went into the hallway and to the door to their left, Max helplessly gesturing towards it. And even El had to admit it, the door was pretty great. What looked like some type of multi-legged monster draped from the top as if it was looking down on them. They had somehow installed what must have been Christmas lights, giving the top half a blue glow and the bottom a vibrant red. Netting or cobweb material gave it almost a foggy look, flecks breaking up the texture of the door. Fabric tentacles grew up from the bottom of the door, creeping onto the wall beside it.

 

El let out a long hum of contemplation while she took it all in, stealing a glance at Max. She was biting her lip anxiously, her eyes flickering between the door in front of them and their own. Sighing, El wrapped around her friend’s shoulders. 

 

“Ours is still awesome,” she coaxed, trying to ease Max back towards their room. The last thing they needed was their neighbor walking out and seeing them just staring at their door. 

 

“I can totally improve it though,” Max said with a grimace. 

 

Their door was great, Max knew that. They’d ended up going with a  _ Nightmare Before Christmas  _ theme and she’d gone all out over the weekend to get it ready. But now she was determined to do it up even more. She had to. She couldn’t let this cool, abstract spooky design win over theirs. She was the queen of Halloween.

 

That meant that the next day after work, she picked up more supplies and planned on spending the rest of the evening working on improving their door.

 

Which then lead to her meeting said neighbor. 

 

“Wow! I didn’t think anymore could get added!” A voice behind her joked.

 

Max whirled around as much as she could from her seated position on the ground. A guy around her age stood behind her, nodding towards their door. 

 

“Oh well, I love Halloween,” she awkwardly explained. “And I really want to win that Halloween decorating contest.”

 

“You’ve definitely got one of the best ones, most people here don’t bother,” he continued brightly, his smile flashing against the deep rich brown of his skin.  _ She was suddenly very aware of how cute he was. _

 

She felt a blush creeping onto her cheeks, answering him with a small shrug. 

 

“I mean my neighbor went all out, I’ve gotta up my game some more so I can win.”

 

“Your neighbor, huh?” A teasing tone slipped into his voice.

 

Suddenly it all clicked in Max’s mind and she looked from the door next to her and then back to the guy in front of her. Oh. 

 

“It’s uh, really nice though!” She squeaked out, trying to cover her own ass.

 

He chuckled at that. “I’m honored to inspire you. It’ll be nice to have some competition around here finally.”

 

Max’s eyes narrowed at that. Now his grin was wide and took over his face.

 

“We won last year too,” he said smugly.

 

With that he pulled his keys out of his pocket and walked over to the door. Max frowned, her competitive drive fully kicking in as she took in their door again. She really, really wanted to win it already but now it was tenfold knowing she was going up against the past winner.

 

“I’m Lucas by the way,” he offered as he began to step into his place.

 

“Max,” she responded, unable to help herself from giving him a smile and a small wave.

 

Once his door clicked shut, she quickly returned to focusing on the door. She still had to figure out how to get this music player to play the movie’s soundtrack  _ and  _ hide it in the fake snow that she was adding on top of the white poster board she had originally put up on the door. 

 

* * *

 

“I can’t believe after all of that, the reward was just a gift card to Olive Garden.”

 

Lucas laughed, nudging Max with shoulder as they walked back up to their apartments. 

 

“I should have warned you that it wasn’t the biggest payout. Especially since we have to split it.”

 

Max had played soccer growing up, she understood the concept of ties. She hadn’t really expected one in terms of the door decorating contest though. But apparently the apartment manager had been so impressed with both of theirs, that she had been excited to add some money to the gift card so that they could split it as winners. It wasn’t an outright win, but even Max was able to admit to herself that it was a well-deserved double win.

 

“You never told me what it was,” she said as they reached their respective doors. She nodded towards the creature.

 

“Oh yeah! It’s a Mind Flayer, it’s a creature in Dungeons and Dragons. My roommate Mike is our DM, he created this place called the Upside Down for one of our sessions so we used it as inspiration for the door! Felt appropriate,” he added with a small smile.

 

“So you’re a nerd,” Max teased, feeling the embers of the crush she’d been starting to harbor ignite. Ever since that first day, she’d gone from never seeing her neighbor to seeing Lucas everywhere it felt like. And she hadn’t complained, finding him quickly a part of her routine. Whether it was the laundry room, the soda machine, or leaving for work in the morning, he always seemed to make an appearance. They’d also compared notes on scary movies and on the horizon was their promised movie night.

 

It hadn’t happened yet, but Max was anxiously awaiting it. Plus she figured it would be a good chance to ask him to come their Halloween party that she and El were going to be throwing. 

 

“A bit.” He laughed and rubbed at his neck nervously. 

 

“Well,” Max leaned in with a mischievous grin and whispered, “luckily I happen to like nerds.”

 

She wasn’t sure where  _ that _ came from or how she got the courage to say it, but the pleased expression on Lucas’ face made it worth it. 

 

Finally Max knew she had to break away from this odd staring contest that they had found themselves in and she jerkily pointed at her door.

 

“I guess I should head in, I think El wants to make those cookies tonight. You know, the ones with the cartoon ghosts on them you just throw in the oven?”

 

“I definitely know those,” Lucas confirmed excitedly. “They’re only the best type of cookies.” 

 

“Maybe I’ll bring some over for you tonight!” Max blurted out. “I mean, Mike can have some too. Or whatever.”  _ Not her smoothest recovery. _

 

“That sounds great,” Lucas said warmly, instantly calming her.

 

She nodded to herself, biting back a dorky grin before moving to let herself in. Jack Skellington seemed to be cheering her on from the door. Taking a deep breath, she quickly looked back over at Lucas.

 

“Hey! Lucas!” She screwed up as much courage that she could. He stopped, poking his head back out the door and looked at her. He definitely seemed hopeful and it helped encourage her to plunge ahead. 

 

“It only seems fair that we use the gift cards on each other. Like, get dinner together. We can compare notes for our Halloween costumes,” she finished almost lamely, trying to not scare him too much while still making it clear that she wanted to go on a date with him.

 

His instant smile eased all concerns though.

 

“I’d love that.”


End file.
